That would help explain how a group of guys who went to Northern Collegiate together in the 1990s all ended up working years later in music and the arts in Toronto and elsewhere.

“I talk about it all the time,” said Preetam Sengupta, a singer-songwriter living in Guelph where he also runs a music business company.

“Anywhere I go in the world, I'm like, 'You know what, there's a bunch of us that all went to school together who are doing something in the arts,'” he said.

Duane Gibson is a Toronto-based hip hop artist known as D.O., and a motivational speaker.

Matt Huether is an executive producer on the long-running Toronto-based television show Degrassi.

Andrew Austin, also living in Toronto, is a singer-songwriter and commercial singer heard on ads for Tim Hortons, and others.

Sami Khan is a filmmaker living in New York who has had two short films in the Toronto International Film Festival and recently finished his first feature film, Khoya.

Donovan Woods is a Juno-nominated Toronto singer-songwriter who travels regularly to Nashville where he has written songs for Tim McGraw and Billy Currington.

Kurt Nielsen, a busy bass player, and Darcy Windover, a singer-songwriter, also both live in Toronto.

Some met in elementary school. Some were friends in high school. Some became friends years later. They all left town after graduation, but their lives have continued to intersect.

Why that particular period, and that particular Sarnia high school, produced so many musicians and artists is hard to pin down.

“It was a wonderful time,” said retired Northern music teacher David Nichols.

He remembers it as a golden era for music at the school, with four concert bands and two jazz bands supported by parents who fundraised to buy some of the best instruments seen at the time in an Ontario high school.

At the same time, a large number of talented students were coming through the doors, Nichols said.

Sengupta said that while they weren't all in the same grade, or all close friends in high school, there were plenty of connections growing up in Sarnia.

He played baseball with Nielsen, went to Woods' sister's birthday party in kindergarten, and attended an elementary school enrichment program with Windover and Khan.

But, there weren't any real signs in those days they would all eventually head in similar directions.

“I didn't even know Andrew was musical until very late in high school,” Sengupta said.

They met in a computer class, bonded over sports, and then they were at a party one night when Sengupta heard someone singing.

“I went downstairs and Andrew was belting out, I think it was a Blind Melon song, and I was like, 'Holy cow, that guy can sing.'”

During high school, Austin joined a Beatles tribute band with Windover, his brother Michael, Nielsen and two other Sarnia musicians that played shows around Sarnia, including a fundraiser for the restoration of the Imperial Theatre.

Austin said growing up in Sarnia there were plenty of opportunities to be involved in sports, theatre groups and other activities.

He met Windover's brother, when they were both in a play, leading to Austin being part of the Beatles tribute band.

“I give all the credit to Darcy,” Austin said.

“I just wanted to play some Beatles songs in Michael Windover's basement.”

Before he knew it, Windover had arranged for the band to play shows around town.

“That really, for me,” Austin said, “was how I felt like, 'Now I know what I want to do. I want to perform and be a musician.'”

Windover and Austin continued playing together in bands while they were both at Western in London.

Today, Windover balances music with a teaching job. He released a solo album, Stones Bleed Honey, in the fall, and is in a Toronto band, The Ole Fashion, with Nielsen.

“There were a lot of really talented people who came out of Northern, around the same time,” Windover said.

“I think there was a community fostered within that.”

Even today, Windover lives in the same Toronto neighbourhood as Austin and Nielsen.

Looking back, Windover also credits mentors among the teachers at Northern, as well as the space the school and the community gave to students interested in the arts.

“There were just enough opportunities for everyone to grow, either as musicians or artists, in one shape or form,” he said.

Huether said he didn't think of Northern as an arts school while he was there.

“It seemed like a sports high school,” he said.

But, Huether added he can see now how Northern offered opportunities for creative expression in music, theatre, visual art and other areas.

“Looking back now, it does makes sense, but that the time it didn't seem like that was where we were headed.”

He was close with Woods and Austin through university and the years that followed, and gives credit to the supportive community those relationships provided.

“I think it let us all believe that you could keep working in the arts, and I think we pushed each other to keep pursuing it,” Huether said.

Woods said those early years he, Huether and Austin spent living in Toronto, before they were having success and making any money, helped form close relationships.

Last year, Sengupta and Gibson were at the Juno Awards in Winnipeg where they had a mini-Northern reunion. Woods was nominated and he brought Huether along with him on the trip.

“It's just nice that we can sit together and talk about Sarnia while we're at the biggest awards show in Canada,” Sengupta said.

“Everybody's just remained pretty close, and I love that.”

While they all moved away after high school, they've maintained connections to Sarnia, coming home to visit family and talking up the place where they were raised.

“We're all proud of our hometown,” Huether said.

“I think it vaulted us to where we are, in a lot of ways.”

While Sengupta made music in high school with Gibson, who was already making a name for himself at the time for his free styling, he left Sarnia for university with no plans of having a career in music.

But that changed later on when he created his company, Letting Artists Make Art, reconnected with Gibson and Austin, and eventually released an album of his own songs.

“I love that we all came up together, went our own direction and then found each other,” Sengupta said.

Gibson, who came to Northern in Grade 11 when his family moved to Sarnia, said he found an encouraging environment among the friends he made at Northern.

His own Northern connection continued after university when a cousin told him about Byram Joseph, a younger hip hop musician from the Franco-Jeunesse, the French language school that shared space at Northern.

“He was the real deal,” Gibson said.

Joseph is known professionally as Slakah the Beatchild, and along with working with Gibson in the group The Art of Fresh, he has worked with Drake, Nelly Furtado, and earned a Juno award for his work with Divine Brown.

Gibson said they recently travelled to Taiwan where friends from Northern, Brooke Daye, Brent Jamieson and Jeremy Club, are still making music together.

Gibson also has embraced his connection to Sarnia, and the friends he made there.

Last year in late December, he brought Maestro Fresh Wes to Sarnia to shoot the video for Never Gets Old, a song featuring the Canadian hip hop legend.

“It's fun that we're still all out here doing this together,” Huether said.